Research Partnerships

The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard have partnered with BRAC to support an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Harvard and Bangladesh examining a range of issues facing vulnerable populations in and around South Asia.

The Partnership provides a platform for collaborative participatory research driven by regional needs. Current projects are focused on the Rohingya forced migration crisis, encompassing a wide range of topics, including outbreak surveillance modeling, social network analysis, economic integration, resettlement policies, public health impact, and others.

BRAC has implemented a multi-sector response since the last Rohingya influx began in August 2017, in close coordination with the government go Bangladesh and other partners through the Inter Sector Coordination Group. BRAC has worked in Cox’s Bazar, one of the key focus areas for this partnership, for the last 35 years. BRAC has a long history of working with the Rohingya in Bangladesh from previous waves of migration and continues to provide a range of services including water, shelter, and healthcare – with some programs reaching over 800,000 refugees

FXB Rapid Assessments
In March 2018, researchers at BRAC and Harvard FXB conducted a rapid assessment household survey among 800 Rohingya and host families in Ukhia and Teknaf. The study underscored the alarmingly low levels of vaccination among the Rohingya in Myanmar, the high mortality rate among young men, the larger number of female-headed households in the Rohingya families, and the low levels of literacy and skills among them – all of which impact planning education services and livelihoods integration for the hundreds of thousands that have migrated in the last year.

FXB BRAC Focus Group Studies
Our research teams are currently conducting in-depth focus group discussions with the Rohingya to understand their needs, priorities and expectations around integration, repatriation, livelihoods, education and the future for their families and their children. Following a pilot phase that was performed in the April 2018, the study is expected to be released in September 2018.

Collaborating Centers
Professor Caroline Buckee, Dr. Ayesha Mahmud and others (in collaboration with Dr. Balsari et al. at the FXB Center) will work with researchers in Bangladesh to pilot a data standardization and interoperability platform on a specific monsoon-related disease outbreak for sharing data during public health emergencies. The first team-wide meeting supported by the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies took place on June 21 and 22, 2018.